Serving in the military brings a unique set of challenges after the uniform comes off. Although many walks of life involve rough physical conditions and taxing demands, the military brings with it an attitude of pushing through the pain, risking your life as a task of the day and being away from regular medical access. If you're a veteran struggling to move around easier, calm the pain or afford physical therapy services, consider a few ways that civilian care and legal support could help 

Where Does Veterans Affairs Come In?

Physical therapy may be covered by your insurance, but if you absolutely don't have the money, the Department of Veterans Affairs can work together with your physical therapist for a solution. 

Veterans Affairs (known as the VA) exists to help veterans in many ways, including injury/condition recovery. If the condition has nothing to do with military service, the VA may still be able to help you find affordable programs and referral to your physical therapist.

For conditions or injuries related to military service, it's time to file a disability claim or appeal. The VA disability system is unrelated to the Social Security Disability program and lacks many of the work restrictions outside of specific disability rating situations. 

The VA disability claim system can be time-consuming. There may be long wait times associated with filing your paperwork, receiving physical examinations within the VA system and you may even be denied. You can, however, receive a referral from the VA to your civilian physical therapist in order to generate new evidence for your claim.

What does it mean to generate new evidence? It means that your therapist will be performing a deep examination of your condition or even sending previously-written evidence if time is of the essence. If you already have evidence, just use the referrals to get the care you need as you wait for an approval.

The VA disability claim success will give you monetary compensation and medical care with other benefits for life, but nothing says you can't get a head start on the care in the name of gathering evidence. Speak with a physical therapist first, explain your situation and work together to get the physical therapy care you need.

Getting Additional Care While You Wait On A Claim

For any patient, a physical therapist can walk through personalized examinations and targeted exercises to begin the recovery process. Everyone has a different level of difficulty and specific injury/condition details, so the first physical therapy visit is key to getting on the right path.

If your injury or condition is military service-related, the examination can be used to help an existing VA claim or appeal. Although the therapist needs to perform certain parts of the examination without being completely guided by outside information, the therapist's opinion can be compared against detailed military medical records.

A lawyer can add a massive increase in success for your claim as you work with civilian medical professionals. As injury law experts, they can research similar cases and look through your medical evidence for information that could support your claim or build a strong appeal.

Contact a general practice lawyer (such as Michael B. McCord) to bring the entire package of claims filing and medical assistance together. With everyone on the same page, you could receive an approval much faster than sitting through denials and filing with trial and error.

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